The volunteers from the IET Aerospace and Satellite Technical Professional Networks were pleased to be invited by the IET Swindon Local Network to join them on their stand once again, which was one of the largest in the Techno Zone this year.The atrocious weather on the Friday, which led to most of the flying programme being cancelled, worked in our favour by generating lots of visitors to the stand.  We were especially delighted to have a surprise visit by Tim Peake, the astronaut.  Whilst on our stand, Tim was kind enough to try some of our activities including the gliding simulator, meet the volunteers and pose for lots of photos.  


I thought this year the variety of activities/literature on the stand was excellent and catered for a wide range of visitors at different stages of their careers.  The Swindon Network had a great range of ‘hands-on’ activities targeted at all age groups, as did the apprentices from DSTL and the Space Store and the number of school students and other youth groups that engaged with these was brilliant.


Contributing to the success of the stand in addition to the IET volunteers and DSTL apprentices were several other organisations and groups, i.e. Graeme Scott with his Bird Eye Simulator, British Gliding Association with their simulator, JetX with their 3D printed jet engine, the Space Store with their astronaut suits (there was a long queue to be photographed in those) and their VR spacewalk, The Careers & Enterprise Company - Careers Hub Swindon, and We the Curious in Bristol lent some of their exhibits.  


View our images from the event together with a video from the JetX team demonstrating their 3D printed engine!